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The Borsch-Rast Book Prize and Lectureship of the Graduate Theological Union has as its purpose the encouragement of the writing and publication of theological scholarship by GTU graduates and current faculty. The endowment for the Borsch-Rast Book Prize and Lectureship comes from the sale of Trinity Press International, a venture dedicated to the publication of scholarly and often interdisciplinary theological studies. The prize and lectureship honor the joint example and collaboration of Frederick Houk Borsch (1935-2017) and Harold W. Rast (1933-2004). Hal Rast, after years as a senior...

The Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish Studies at the Graduate Theological Union is pleased to present the Spring 2015 edition of its newsletter, Bamerkaz. To download a copy of the latest edition, featuring articles by CJS faculty and students, click here.

The Walter & Elise Haas Fund has provided funding to the GTU in support of the Madrasa-Midrasha Program, a collaborative interreligious effort cosponsored by the Center for Islamic Studies and the Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish Studies. We are pleased to announce research grants for GTU students and scholars working on interreligious projects related to Judaism and/or Islam. Grants will range from $250 to $500 for individual projects and $500 to $1000 for joint projects, which are strongly encouraged.
The following criteria will be applied to determine winning proposals:
Student(s)...

The Walter & Elise Haas Fund has provided the GTU a grant to support the Center for Islamic Studies and the Center for Jewish Studies in their joint programming for this academic year. We are pleased to announce grants for students working on an interreligious research project related to Judaism and Islam. Grants will range from $250 to $500 for individual projects and $500 to $1000 for joint projects, which are strongly encouraged. Student must be in the GTU MA, ThD or PhD degree program focusing on Jewish Studies and/or Islamic Studies and/or have registered for a CJS or CIS class this...

For immediate release, January 28, 2016The Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish Studies (CJS) at the Graduate Theological Union is pleased to welcome Dr. Deena Aranoff as the Center’s new director. Dr. Aranoff, who has worked with CJS and served on the GTU faculty since 2006, takes over the role from Dr. Naomi Seidman, who served as CJS director for the previous 16 years. Dr. Seidman will continue to work with CJS and its students as the Graduate Theological Union’s Koret Professor of Jewish Literature.
Dr. Aranoff, whose teaching specialties include rabbinic literature and medieval Jewish...

For immediate release, April 7, 2016
The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation has announced that Dr. Naomi Seidman, Koret Professor of Jewish Culture at the Graduate Theological Union, has received a Guggenheim Fellowship for 2016. Dr. Seidman is among a diverse group of 178 scholars, artists, and scientists selected to receive the prestigious award this year; Fellows for 2016 were chosen from a field of nearly 3,000 applicants.
The Fellowship, granted for Dr. Seidman’s work in the field of literary criticism, will support development of her upcoming book, tentatively titled The Navel of...

When it comes to horror films, a dash of holy water, a priest waving a cross, and some unintelligible Latin usually provide enough legitimacy to make the most demonic possessions believable to the general population. But when brothers Chad and Carey Hayes set to writing their most recent screenplay, they wanted an accurate portrayal more than dramatic. Diana Walsh-Pasulka (M.A. ’99) provided the expertise they needed for incorporating the Old Roman Rite of exorcism preferred by Ed and Lorraine Warren, the couple who famously investigated the Amityville Horror and the real life inspiration for...

From the Spring 2017 issue of CurrentsView PDF of article * View PDF of Entire Issue
By Carrie SealineThrough her work at the GTU’s Center for Jewish Studies—and a surprising friendship--Lea Heitfeld is keeping cultural memory alive and helping shape a more hopeful future.
Lea Heitfeld has been in the news a lot recently. The granddaughter of Nazis, the 31-year-old MA student at the GTU’s Center for Jewish Studies is the unlikely housemate of Ben Stern, a 95-year-old Holocaust survivor. Their unusual friendship has led to interviews with national and international media including the ...

From the Fall 2016 issue of Currents, view PDF
By Doug Davidson
Our 2016 Sarlo Award winner discusses theological education, diversity at the GTU, and the joys of writing
Dr. Barbara Green, O.P., first heard about the Graduate Theological Union in 1964, when she entered the Dominican Convent in San Rafael, California, to begin her training to become a religious sister. “The priest who taught us would come in and, instead of focusing on Saint Thomas or whatever was scheduled for that day, he’d talk about this exciting new project up in Berkeley where Catholics and Protestants were working...

From the Spring 2018 issue of SKYLIGHTSee a PDF of this article
In 1964, just two years after the founding of the Graduate Theological Union as a partnership of Christian seminaries, the school’s dean, John Dillenberger, approached the Conservative and Reform Movements to share his interest in establishing Jewish Studies on campus “to stand in its own right in relation to other studies, and not just as an adjunct to Protestant studies.” The radical vision of the early GTU is well reflected in its desire to establish a home for Jewish studies supported rather than constrained by its...

An institution of higher learning unlike any other, the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley brings together scholars of the world’s diverse religions and wisdom traditions to advance new knowledge, share inspiration, and collaborate on solutions.